AD | How I take/edit my Instagram photo’s

October 10, 2018

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Today, I’m bringing you a very requested post of how I take and edit my Instagram photo’s which is in collaboration with Panasonic and along side their release of the new LUMIXwaterproof camera which is honestly perfect for adventures all over the world and capturing memories to remember forever. It’s compact, has a 4K camera and it’s waterproof.. I mean if you’re a travel blogger I don’t think you could get a more perfect camera!

SOOOO. I’ve recently changed up my ‘theme’ on Instagram (I hate saying theme because I don’t really see it as one I just do the same edit to every photo) and I’ve had a lot of people ask how I take my photo’s and how I edit them so I hopefully I’ll be able to explain in this post how I do it all!

As you can see below, my Instagram feed has changed throughout this year, from bright and white images in February to more dark and autumnal in October. Don’t get me wrong I liked having bright photo’s on my feed but just felt it wasn’t me. I was taking photos for other people and the gram and was so obsessed with making sure the brightness was up enough and making sure the white was white enough, I know it sounds stupid but I just got caught up in my feed.

Let’s talk about what I use to take my photo’s.. I always use my camera which is the Cannon EOS M10 with a 15-45mm lens which I’ve been obsessed with ever since I got it for Christmas 2 years ago, It honestly changed the game for me. I hardly ever use my iPhone for photography now, it’s not that it doesn’t take good photos because it does I just love my camera too much and the quality you just can’t compare.

How I take my photo’s

My Instagram photo’s are mostly product photography as I’m still trying to get comfortable with outfit photo’s, I mean you’ll see a few selfies here and there but nothing major. I have got a tripod but haven’t thought about using it outdoors and I don’t really have many people to take photos with so I’m I not sure I’d feel comfortable with carrying around a tripod and shooting myself in public but I’m going to try and get more creative indoors and see what I come up with.

With product photography including flatlays I actually take them on my bed as my bedroom is one of the lightest rooms in the house. I have a massive white board that I use which is actually a table top I got from IKEA and then I have some white material I put over the top as the table top is more cream than white and I couldn’t deal with that.

How I edit my photo’s

My editing process is quite simple really. I use three main apps which are Facetune, ColorStory and VSCO although I won’t use all of these if I don’t need to as there’s no point editing a photo if it doesn’t need to as it’ll alter the quality.

I’ll always start in ColorStory and brighten if I need to but sometimes if my photo is already quite bright I’ll just skip to VSCO. Oh also if my photo isn’t straight I’ll try and align it in ColorStory. Anyone else get stressed if you can’t get your photo straight even though you’ve been trying for 20 minutes? No just me. Okay then.. Facetune is normally my next stop although if I haven’t used a white background I’ll just skip this step as all I use Facetune for is to whiten the white background as usually it isn’t as white as I thought it was when taking the photo.

VSCO is normally my last stop but this is the app I spend the most time on. Before I used to edit each photo by itself but I’ve learnt recently you can save your edit on a photo so now I save myself a bit of time and just copy and paste the edits on all my photo’s. I can usually tell as soon as I upload a photo to VSCO if it will fit in with my ‘theme’. I always try and use neutral colours, for example: greens, browns gold and white.

My editing process on VSCO:

• Use the A6 filter at +6

• Exposure -1

• Contrast +2

• Sharpen +4

• Temperature +3

I’ll play around with the colours as well if needed, depending on the photo but they’ll just be little adjustments nothing too major so just if the sky is a little too bright I’ll bring the saturation down for example. My go to filter on VSCO is A6, I have used HB1 before but much prefer A6, it just goes much better with my photo’s.

Obviously with every image I tweak things differently depending on what I’m working with and the lighting. I’m not overly keen on VERY edited photo’s but that’s just my personal opinion. I do think my editing is very simple and doesn’t take me massively long unless I’m being very picky. I do sometimes stress over how my photo’s go in my feed but that’s just me haha.

Tips for product photography

1. Try and shoot in natural lighting. I know in winter it’s kind of impossible as it’s gets dark so early but it gives you the best light possible and even better when it’s overcast! When shooting in blue skies I always seem to get a blue tinge to my photo’s and when it comes to editing, it takes me way longer and stresses me out. Obviously you could buy some soft box lights which would make life so much easier for you. I have one and it’s a lifesaver.

2. Take more than one shot. When I’m taking my photo’s I always shoot more than just once. Sometimes the difference between an OK and a great photo is your angle. Just experiment with angles, it doesn’t matter if you take 3 or 103 as long as you’re happy with the end result!

3. Props are your friend. Props can make a photo and you kind of want to make it look very natural as if those props would have been there anyway. I normally add my laptop to a corner of the photo or just some jewellery as I like to keep my photos quite simple. Props help you tell a story, therefore making them more interesting.

4. Keep your background simple. As I said above I use a big plain white background and I like to keep it simple. If the background is something very plain then it’ll keep your product in focus. Although if you don’t like some texture to your photo’s, go into a homeware store and pick up some wallpaper samples as these will as just a little something more than just the white background!

That’s it! That’s how I take and edit my Instagram photo’s. I hope you enjoyed and maybe it was even a little bit helpful?! I always love seeing how other bloggers edit their photo’s, I always find it super interesting.

*This post was kindly sponsored by Panasonic but all thoughts and views are my own.

Awwh Samanta! Your photos are beautiful and you’ve some really good tips here, especially for beginners.
I used to not bother editing photos too much but then I found light room and how easy it was to use and it really changes the game doesn’t it. I haven’t used VSCO yet but definitely have to give it a try.

It’s always interesting to read about how people edit their pictures. It’s interesting that everyone has their own style – not like gingham is the answer to everything, hehe. Oh man, I was obsessed over faux fur at one point that I bought a piece of it for flatlays, hehe. Love that you’re sharing your settings from VSCO.